A LAGOS High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Hafiz Ringim, to produce the Managing Director of Folio Communications Limited, Fidelis Anosike, his brother, Noel and their company, before it over a 40-count charge of stealing N2.5 billion worth of property belonging to Daily Times of Nigeria (DTN).
The court added that they should appear before it on July 24 to answer the criminal charge preferred against them by the Federal Government.
When the case came up for hearing, Justice Habeeb Abiru gave the order consequent upon the failure of the accused persons to appear in court.
The Anosike brothers, it was gathered, are also facing a 21-count charge for allegedly conspiring to illegally siphon several billions of naira from the coffers of Daily Times.
According to the fresh charges before the Lagos High Court, the Anosike brothers and their company, Folio Communications Limited, were alleged to have made false representation to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that they had means to acquire majority shares of Daily Times.
The accused persons are said to have mortgaged the assets of the newspaper company and later sold some of the property to realise the acquisition of the said shares.
The offence is contrary to Section 8 of the Advance-Fee-Fraud and Other Related Offences Act of 1995 as amended and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.
The case was first filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, in September last year when the Federal Government slammed a 21-count charge against Anosike.
However, throughout the period, the accused persons never appeared and the judge kept giving orders of appearance to Akin Akintinwe, counsel to the then Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN).
See the rest here:
Court orders IG to produce Anosike brothers over Daily Times